Parasomnias are Most Sleep Disorders

Any irregular movement during sleep or character of sleep is given the label of parasomnias. There are two different types: NREM and REM parasomnias. NREM stands for non-rapid eye movement and REM stands for rapid eye movement. These stages are the normal stages of sleep. An average person will experience maybe 4 REM cycles during a night's rest. Some parasomnias for NREM include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, teeth grinding, or RLS. REM parasomnias are a lot more dangerous. During REM sleepers with disorders in this stage can experience complete muscle lose or violently twitch and act out dreams.

Nocturnal Myoclonus is Different than RLS

Nocturnal Myoclonus is considered periodic limb movement disorder. This means that the person with the disorder has a movement in either their arm or leg during sleep. Sometimes it can be a small movement with the ankle or a huge twitch from the hip. They can last as long as 5 seconds and even happen every 5 seconds. It can create insomniacs and is active in maybe 4% of all adults. How is it treated? Medications can slow or all together rid the jerking. These medications include dextropropoxyphene and clonazepam. Your doctor can recommend the proper treatment for your symptoms.

The Fear of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

By definition alone, obstructive sleep apnea is breathless sleep. Naturally sleeping without breathing is obstructive in several definitions. So what causes OSA? Well in simple explanation a person's muscles relax during sleep; including those in a person's throat. People that have OSA happen to have muscles that relax too much and their airway fails. Sometimes a person will wake violently when this happens or ever so slightly that simply causes a disruption in their sleep pattern. If severe enough a victim of OSA could have a hard time resting and become ill due to the lack of sleep they are receiving.

Jet Lag is a Sleeping Disorder

Some people, like me, don't even consider jet lag a sleeping disorder. Yes it changes your sleep pattern for a night or two but isn't it expected? You can't change time zones and expect your internal clock to be able to switch with you. However jet lag is considered a sleeping disorder. It may only be a disorder for several nights but it is still a disorder none-the-less. Some people that travel all the time have to deal with this pattern constantly. When you live your life jumping time zones too many times on a regular basis your body will develop some terrible habits.

Pavor Nocturnus Occurs in Adults

Pavor nocturnus is another name for night terror. Theses terrors are known as parasomnia disorders because a person is locked momentarily into a stressful situation without being able to awake. This is different from a nightmare because the victim is not fully asleep when it occurs and doesn't dream or experience any specific situation except general terror. Adults normally don't have night terrors but they can occur when they are afraid to go to sleep. A situation that might cause this kind of fear is a home invasion or home burglary that occurred during the night. The adult then no longer feels safe to fall asleep and may experience this kind of constant fear that interrupts their sleep patterns.

Products for Night Tooth-Grinding

Grinding your teeth at night will most likely result in dental damage. With personal knowledge, it also causes pain and discomfort in the morning. It can become a real bad habit that is hard to stop. There are plenty of night tooth-grinding prevention products on the market today. The night guard is a very popular product however the night strip is a new product that let sleepers know how bad their grinding is. After placing the night strip in your mouth and falling asleep it will show signs of grinding if there are marks on the strip in the morning.

Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome (Non-24) is Considered Rare

Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome is a rare sleep disorder because it occurs in less than a half of a percentage in the population. There are several types of circadian rhythm disorders; jet lag is considered one and shift work sleepers. Non-24 is when a victim of this disorder feels like falling asleep at different times of the day; each night it gets a little later and thus they wake later. One night the may get tired at 9 pm. The next they can't fall asleep until 10 pm and the following 11 pm. You can see this would be a problem when they can't fall asleep until 4 am and wake around noon.